Are There Age-Related Differences in Effects of Positive and Negative Emotions in Arithmetic?

Abstract

We investigated effects of emotions on arithmetic problem-solving and age-related differences in these effects. Young and older adults verified addition problems displayed superimposed on emotionally negative, positive, or neutral pictures. Participants obtained poorer performance in emotion than in neutral conditions, with stronger interference by negative than positive emotions. Also, participants were more impaired by negative emotions while solving true problems than false problems, whereas they were influenced by positive emotions similarly on true and false problems. Interestingly, effects of both positive and negative emotions were comparable in young and older adults. These findings have important implications for further understanding how negative and positive emotions influence arithmetic problem-solving.